These Character Bios are temporary and will be replaced by more comprehensive ones in the near future, so check back soon!

Tom's family on his dad's side....

Grandpa Hughes - Grandpa Hughes was Tom's great-grandfather. His real name was Will, but everyone just called him Grandpa or Pops (Tom's name for him). He was a farmer who could only afford to send one of his three kids to college. After his wife died, he moved in with the family of his oldest son Chris. He died in the mid-1970s.

Chris Hughes - Chris was the oldest son of Will and the one who went to college. He was a lawyer and the father of four children: Don, Susan, Penny, and Bob. He died in the mid-1980s and at least four of his descendants (Tom, Adam, Chris, and Christina) carry his name in theirs (Christopher is the middle name of both Tom and Adam).

Nancy Hughes - Chris's wife and Tom's grandmother. She was once a very meddlesome mother (Chris often had to intercede) though she has mellowed over the years. She and Chris celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary right before his death. She later wed Hal and Margo's boss, Lt. Dan (Mac) MacClosky. He was later diagnosed with Alzheimers, but died of a heart attack. (Nancy has at least one sister that we know of as Nancy used to visit her from time to time when actress Helen Wagner went on vacation!)

Edie Hughes Frey - Chris's younger sister. She was involved in a scandalous affair with Jim Lowell (Ellen's father, Emily's great-grandfather) that drove much of the story in the first few years of the show. Jim did divorce his wife, but morals in those days did not allow him to find happiness with Edie, so in a fit of pique head writer Irna Phillips killed off his character. Edie eventually married Jim (?) Frey and left town.

John Hughes - Edie's twin was the black sheep of the Hughes family.

Don Hughes - The oldest of Chris and Nancy's four children and a lawyer like his father. He was one of the few people with whom Tom connected during his troubled teen years. He also briefly dated Lisa. He went through many relationships on the show, not finding true happiness until he hooked up with Mary Ellison, the adoptive mother of Teddy Ellison (whose biological parents were Lisa's ex-husband Grant Coleman and Donald's ex-wife Joyce Coleman--although Teddy's birth preceded the arrival of those characters on the show). Don must have adopted Teddy himself, since the boy now goes by the name Ryder Hughes. Don's only child (with Mary) is Christina Nancy Hughes. She was born around the same time as Christopher, shortly after the elder Chris Hughes's death. Don and his family live out west somewhere, either Arizona or Wyoming.

Susan Hughes - Susan is the older of Chris and Nancy's two daughters. She died as a teenager (struck by lightning while swimming) shortly before ATWT started.

Penny Hughes - Penny was ATWT's original teen heroine. She was involved in a star-crossed love affair with Jeff Baker (played by now movie director and writer Mark "On Golden Pond" Rydell) that would classify them as daytime's first supercouple. After Jeff died in a car accident (ATWT was so popular back then that the event was reported in Time magazine), Penny was married three more times, to Neil Wade, Roy McGuire, and current husband race car driver Anton Cunningham (which is ironic since at least two of her husbands died in car crashes). Anton and Penny live in London and have an adopted Eurasian daughter, Amy (Penny couldn't have children of her own). Penny shows up from time to time, most recently for her mother's 80th birthday party on the doomed Valletta.

Bob Hughes - Tom's father. Like John, his background is a whole long story in itself, so we won't go into it here. The important thing is that though Bob was a rather neglectful father when Tom was growing up, the two are quite close now.

Frannie Hughes Crawford - Bob's daughter with third wife Jennifer Sullivan Ryan (Kim's sister and the person the current Jennifer was named after). Of all of Tom's siblings, he was probably closest to her. On her mother's side, Frannie has three half-siblings: Barbara and Rick Ryan and Melinda Gray (deceased). That means she is aunt to all of Barbara's offspring, in addition to Tom's. Since her own mom died when she was quite young, Frannie came to consider her aunt (and stepmother) Kim her mother.

Like any soap heroine, she has had her share of ordeals and relationships. She was involved with Douglas Cummings for a while, but he had a sick infatuation for Kim and eventually wound up dead. Frannie inherited his vast estate which left her a very wealthy young woman. She also was engaged to Seth Snyder and involved with Larry McDermott (the father of Susan's daughter Allison) before marrying Margo's high school sweetheart Darryl Crawford (who is the father of Jennifer Munson).

That marriage ended when Frannie believed Darryl killed his first wife Carolyn (played by the real life wife of Don Hastings, who of course plays Bob Hughes!). Frannie, a psychologist, now lives and works in Montega with her half-sister/cousin Sabrina. [BTW, movie star Julianne Moore played Frannie and Sabrina during the mid to late 80s.]

Sabrina Fullerton Hughes Crowley - Sabrina has one of the more convoluted backgrounds in ATWT history. When Bob was married to Jennifer, he had a one-night stand with her sister, Kim. He returned to Jennifer, however, who was either already or very soon expecting his daughter, Frannie. At the same time, Kim also found herself pregnant with Bob's baby. When she gave birth, however, at around the same time as her sister, she was told that her baby, a boy, had died.

In reality, however, a Dr. Lansing, along with Jennifer's son Rick (a scoundrel and doctor who hated Bob), had switched babies and Bob and Kim's daughter, Sabrina, was given to an English couple to raise. They found her years later as a young adult, and though she came to care for her American family, she never completely incorporated into the Hugheses. Because he was so protective of Frannie, Tom, in particular, was never very close to his half-sister.

Sabrina was the person who broke up Seth and Frannie's engagement when he slept with herthinking she was Frannie (until she spoke up in her English accent that is). They were involved for a while, but Sabrina eventually married a former boyfriend, Colin Crowley (an artist who, BTW, designed the garden room at the Mona Lisa--the room they always use these days). They have since divorced and Sabrina lives and works with her half-sister/cousin Frannie in Montega.

Sabrina, for the record, is full sibling to Chris.

Christopher Robert Hughes - This guy we all know very well. He is Bob and Kim's son and though he had a pretty stable and happy childhood, he obviously has been rebelling against that since being expelled from Columbia for selling test answers. Because of the age difference, he's never been portrayed as particularly close to Tom (more so to Tom's sons, Adam and Casey who were playmates), but Tom was always a presence in his life.

That pretty much covers it on the Hughes side of Tom's family. Since they were already mentioned in their parents bios Tom's cousins (Amy, Ryder, and Christina), won't be brought up again here. The important thing to note is that Tom is a good deal older than all of his siblings and cousins. Frannie and Sabrina (and Amy) who would be closest in age to him are all a good decade younger. The rest are younger than Tom's oldest child (though Ryder shouldn't be) and indeed younger than Tom and Margo's two oldest children would have been if Margo hadn't lost those babies.

Tom has had a number of step siblings on his father's side. When he was a little boy, there was Jimmy McGuire (yes, Penny's husband Roy McGuire was his father), though they have no relationship now. Later, there were Barbara and Rick Ryan, Bilan Marlowe (very briefly), and Andy Dixon. He obviously still has very important relationships with Barbara and Andy. Rick is off on some Caribbean island to avoid extradition back to the US for his crimes.

Tom is close to his stepmother, Kim Hughes, and has been for many years. Kim is the one person who still generally calls Tom "Tommy" even though he apparently rejected that name even at a young age. It just sounds right coming from Kim, however.